The present disclosure, for example, relates to wireless communication systems, and more particularly to techniques for contending for access to a radio frequency spectrum band using a coordinated Listen Before Talk (LBT) procedure.
Wireless communication systems are widely deployed to provide various types of communication content such as voice, video, packet data, messaging, broadcast, and so on. These systems may be multiple-access systems capable of supporting communication with multiple users by sharing the available system resources (e.g., time, frequency, and power). Examples of such multiple-access systems include code-division multiple access (CDMA) systems, time-division multiple access (TDMA) systems, frequency-division multiple access (FDMA) systems, and orthogonal frequency-division multiple access (OFDMA) systems.
A wireless multiple-access communication system may include a number of network access devices, each simultaneously supporting communication for multiple communication devices, otherwise known as user equipment (UEs). In a Long-Term Evolution (LTE) or LTE-Advanced (LTE-A) network, a network access device may take the form of a base station, with a set of one or more base stations defining an eNodeB (eNB). In a next generation, new radio, or 5G network, a network access device may take the form of a smart radio head (or radio head (RH)) or access node controller (ANC), with a set of smart radio heads in communication with an ANC defining an eNB. A base station or smart radio head may communicate with a set of UEs on downlink channels (e.g., for transmissions from a base station or smart radio head to a UE) and uplink channels (e.g., for transmissions from a UE to a base station or smart radio head).
In some cases, a network access device may communicate with a UE over a radio frequency spectrum band shared by a plurality of network operating entities. In such cases, the network access device and/or UE may need to contend for access to the shared radio frequency spectrum band.